Park May Get`historic' Label

The Palm Beach County Commission will decide on Tuesday whether to declare Riverbend Regional Park west of Jupiter a "historic district."

The area is best known as the site of the 1838 Battle of Loxahatchee, a conflict that heralded the end of the Second Seminole War and cleared the way for white settlement of South Florida.

But the 684-acre park, which includes the headwaters of the Loxahatchee River, also has been a center of settlement for about 2,500 years. Archaeologists have unearthed a treasure trove of history there, including literally hundreds of artifacts, some dating to 500 B.C.

Relics confirm the existence of prehistoric Indian camps and burial mounds, the remains of a pioneer cabin and a rare mid-19th century Seminole encampment -- one of only two such settlements known to have existed in Florida from 1850 to 1870, after most Seminoles were killed or driven to Oklahoma.

Historic designation would put the park's 73 identified historic and prehistoric sites on the Palm Beach County Register of Historic Places. In addition, any construction activity there would require approval from the county's Historic Resources Review Board.

Traditionally, the county has applied historic designation to homes and other structures. Parks and Recreation Director Dennis Eshleman said this might be the first time it has been applied to an archaeologically sensitive area of bare land.

The move has drawn strong support from community members.

"Grave sites should not become campgrounds," Jupiter resident Lisa McDonough wrote in an e-mail to county commissioners. McDonough is a member of the Loxahatchee River Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution.

"Construction and development of this park will destroy an irreplaceable legacy," she wrote. "Your vote to grant historic district status will allow the park to remain a permanent gift to Florida's residents and visitors. It also will honor the memory of many who died on this land, both Seminoles and U.S. soldiers."

Such recognition has been a long time coming.

Locals have long thought the park, south of Indiantown Road and about 1 miles west of Florida's Turnpike, to be the site of important age-old happenings. But much of that history was lost until about a decade ago, when amateur archaeologists began unearthing tools, weapons, pottery and spent ammunition.

In 1989, Richard Procyk, a retired Miami homicide detective, uncovered the remains of a camp of the Tennessee Volunteers, a hard-bitten militia that fought the Seminoles alongside army regulars.

In 1991, Mike Daniel of Jupiter, a stunt coordinator for actor/director Burt Reynolds, cemented its importance by proving that it was the site of the Battle of Loxahatchee.

Daniel and friend Graham Huls, a surveyor, pored over documents from the state archives to pinpoint the battlefield. Using metal detectors, they found more than 200 artifacts, including .25- and .50-caliber musketballs, grapeshot and rifles.

The two men turned over their findings to the Loxahatchee Historical Society, now the Florida History Center & Museum, and informed state and county historians of their discovery.

But county officials -- unprepared to excavate at that point and wary of drawing souvenir hunters -- played down the area's historical importance. Daniel said parks officials chased him off the site when he tried to bring the county Historical Commission out for a tour to confirm his findings.

That changed a few years later, when the proposed widening of Indiantown Road through a narrow segment of the battlefield sparked loud protest from history buffs and drew the interest of the federal government.

The road's path was altered and Palm Beach County hired noted Miami-Dade County archaeologist Bob Carr to mount a professional exploration. Carr recently has been involved in efforts to save the Miami circle, a mysterious stone carving recently unearthed along the Miami River.

Artifacts found in the park have been catalogued and their locations charted. Currently, most are in storage with the county's Parks and Recreation Department, but Eshleman said the county is proposing to build an interpretative center where they would be put on display.

Currently, only a very small portion of the park is open to the public. Eshleman said a master plan for how to develop it for "passive recreation" and education is expected to be released in about six months.

The plan likely will call for restrooms, picnic areas, hiking and biking trails, informational signs and kiosks, and perhaps a campground.

A replica pioneer village also is a possibility.

Eshleman said whatever the county does will be carefully designed around the sensitive sites.

"This is a very special piece of property," he said.

"We're going to do what it takes to preserve it."

Cindy Glover can be reached at cglover@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2905.